Ehlers tapped for Danish Oly team

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This article was published 08/10/2021 (1481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers is officially an Olympian.

The 25-year-old was named as one of three Denmark skaters in a list released by the International Ice Hockey Federation on Friday. Each of the 12 nations competing in Beijing next February were required to give the public a sneak peek at their roster.

Ehlers, who led the Danes to their first-ever berth in a qualifying tournament this summer, is joined by Oliver Bjorkstrand (Columbus) and his cousin, Alexander True (Seattle).

“He’s pretty quiet,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said Friday when asked if Ehlers was rubbing it in to teammates. “He just has a little smile on his face. I think he’s going to wait for the statue. When the statue comes out, he’s going to take pictures of it and send it to everybody’s phone anonymously.”

Ehlers is the only member of the Jets on a preliminary roster. However, Connor Hellebuyck and Kyle Connor (USA) and Mark Scheifele (Canada) will likely be joining him in China. Moose defenceman Leon Gawanke is likely to play for Germany, while other players including Blake Wheeler and Neal Pionk (USA) and Josh Morrissey (Canada) could work their way into the conversation with strong starts to their seasons.

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Speaking of Connor, could this be the year he finally hits 40-goals? After 34 in 2018-19, Connor was certain to eclipse the mark in 2019-20 only to have COVID-19 shut the regular-season down early, leaving him with 38 tallies in 71 games. The 24-year-old lit the lamp 26 times last year in the modified 56-game regular season.

Connor insists there’s no specific number in mind, and preventing goals is just as important as scoring them.

“We definitely have to evolve,” Connor said Friday of the mindset necessary for overall team success. He’s likely to begin the year on a familiar top line with Scheifele and Wheeler, although Scheifele will miss the first game in Anaheim to finish serving a suspension.

“You can’t look back and say, oh we were great in 2018, let’s recreate that. The game changes every year so we’ve got to change our game,” said Connor.

“We for sure have chemistry in a certain way over the years. You know where certain tendencies of each Blake and Mark but going into each year, you’ve got to evolve, I would say. Our structure’s changed, we’re going through a couple of different systems so it’s definitely going to affect the way that we play but we’re definitely trying to use more of our speed on our wingers and get a lot more slash breakouts so that’s going to change our style as well.”

Connor believes the addition of blue-liners Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon will help matters. As for chasing an Olympic medal, Connor admits it’s on his mind.

“I think it would be pretty special,” he said. “I think every kid in hockey grows up watching that. I know where I was for the 2010 Olympics, watching that so that would be a pretty cool experience, definitely a goal of mine but you can’t think about it. You’ve got to come in every day and try to get better as a player and help this team win. That’s how you prove yourself that you could be worthy.”

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Scheifele has first-hand knowledge about the challenges facing heal-thcare workers. His mother, Mary-Lou, is a former nurse who still works in the medical field in Ontario.

It was with that background Scheifele says he wanted to do something to honour those who have given so much during the COVID-19 pandemic. And so “Scheif’s Healthcare Heroes” was born, a season-long initiative in which a local worker will be selected by Shared Health for dinner and lower bowl seats with a guest to each of the Jets’ 41 home games.

“Obviously these past two years have been very tough on our health-care workers,” Scheifele, 27, said Friday. “I think the biggest thing I want to get out of it is show my appreciation, the Winnipeg Jets whole hockey team’s appreciation for how much they’ve done for our community, for Winnipeg, for Canada, for the world. Hopefully we can put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.”

Provincial health-care workers can nominate colleagues — both current and recently retired — with the winners being recognized at each game in the rink. They will also receive a Scheifele jersey with a Healthcare Heroes patch.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg